The only reason EVGA made best-buy exclusive cards is so that the model numbers would be different. This way Best Buy can advertise that they price match, without having anything to match their prices to.

If you look at the models/SKU's for the more important items sold at Best Buy (TVs, laptops, etc) you'll find that most of them don't exist anywhere else.

That makes a lot of sense. Good strategy on their end.

Also, I thought that maybe they could be a source for a cheap Quadro flashed card with lots of vram, but unfortunately none of the GPUs match up to a Quadro equivalent.

Walmart does it too. I worked there for ~3 years and although there was a Best Buy right across the street, we were rarely, if ever, able to price-match BB since the model numbers of seemingly identical products were different (Walmart's 'name brand' models usually have 'WM' in the model number, for example.) It pissed a lot of people off but it was what it was.

BB and Walmart (and by extension most of the other box stores) compete a lot less than many people seem to think. Best Buy's sales model is to carry many higher-end brands and sell them at cost while making money from Black Tie, whereas Walmart carries typically cheaper models with a modest markup. Someone who buys TVs from Walmart isn't going to even consider BB.

I was referring mainly to name-brand TVs, consoles, Apple products. There's a 96% markup on cables and whatnot, but that's why I said "higher-end brands."

Name brand TVs are more expensive in BB than online (using the 'equivalent' models of course).

Quote:

Originally Posted by lightsout

You normally can't compare an online store with a brick and mortar. B&M's have much more overhead. Not sticking up for best buy here but of course you can find cheaper online.

That's not the point - the point is that he claimed that best buy was selling at cost. "At cost" means the same price they bought that item for. So if Best Buy is selling at cost, it would have to mean that online retailers are selling below cost, which is impossible for a business to do in the long term.

The only reason EVGA made best-buy exclusive cards is so that the model numbers would be different. This way Best Buy can advertise that they price match, without having anything to match their prices to.

If you look at the models/SKU's for the more important items sold at Best Buy (TVs, laptops, etc) you'll find that most of them don't exist anywhere else.

Name brand TVs are more expensive in BB than online (using the 'equivalent' models of course).

That's not the point - the point is that he claimed that best buy was selling at cost. "At cost" means the same price they bought that item for. So if Best Buy is selling at cost, it would have to mean that online retailers are selling below cost, which is impossible for a business to do in the long term.